A Portable Micro Home is the New American Dream

This student-designed micro home is completely self-sufficient and can be towed by your average car.

This prototype for a new kind of self-sufficient mobile home was designed with reclaimed materials by an innovative group of sixteen students, members of a Renewable Energy and Ecological Design (REED) course at Green Mountain College in Vermont. The Optimal Traveling Independent Space (OTIS) is a pod-shaped home with a reduced environmental footprint that is equipped with a composting toilet, a rainwater collection system to provide indoor plumbing, and 120-watt solar panels to provide electricity. The home is selling between $8,000 and $10,000.

OTIS can be towed easily by a 5-foot-by-8-foot trailer, giving the freedom to live a nomadic life to a generation that would rather reduce their carbon footprints than be tied down by mortgages. “The appeal of living a more nomadic lifestyle represents a new take on the American Dream, especially among students in this millennial generation,” Professor Lucas Brown, Director of the REED course, explained.

In this video, Brown and his students tell us a little more about the project: